The overwhelming figure of Johann Sebastian Bach, has for a long time overshadowed the other members of his illustrious dynasty. Yet the musicians among the Bachs were many, and very different from each other. Today we are discovering Johann Sebastian's ancestors and predecessors, but although they are better known, his four composer sons are still not estimated at their true worth, as genuine creators with highly individual personalities, masters of the pre-Classical era who broke with the late Baroque and pointed forward to the great composers of the next generation, Haydn and Mozart.

The instrumental and vocal ensemble Les Talens Lyriques was formed in 1991, and its repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to Lully to Handel. It was its founder Christophe Rousset's passion for operatic works that led him to create the group, however as well as opera the ensemble explores other musical forms of the same period, the motet, madrigal, cantata and air de cour by composers including Dumont, Lambert and Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre.

Christophe Rousset trained with Huguette Dreyfus at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, before completing his studies with Bob van Asperen at the Royal Conservatory of Music at The Hague. In 1983, at the age of twenty-two, he took first prize at the International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges. Apart from his activities as a harpsichordist, Christophe Rousset is also a conductor and made his début as such with Les Arts Florissants, before forming Les Talens Lyriques. His aim is to explore European music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (opera, cantata, oratorio, sonata, symphony, concerto) and shed light on every form that played a part in the history of music up to Rossini. His complete harpsichord works of Couperin, Rameau, d'Anglebert and Forqueray, and his regular recordings of Bach are regarded as references.

Personnel:
Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset - (harpsichord & director), Atsushi Sakaï - (cello), Jocelyn Daubigney - (flute)